Moving to add support for decentralized applications to Windows XP,
Microsoft Wednesday unveiled a beta of its Windows XP
Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit (SDK).

The SDK features updated Windows XP application programming interfaces
(APIs) and enhancements to the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
networking stack, intended to help developers leverage P2P infrastructure
to create decentralized applications and services, like collaboration and
data sharing features, for business and customer scenarios.

"By supporting both decentralized and centralized models of computing and
information sharing, Microsoft can best address the high-level needs of its
business customers, who need to be more agile, more flexible and more
responsive to customer needs," said Jack Ozzie, vice president of developer
services at desktop collaboration software maker Groove Networks. "the
enhanced peer-to-peer support for Windows XP will enable developers to more
easily build decentralized applications."

The APIs add support for scalable P2P name resolution, efficient multipoint
communication, the creation and management of persistent P2P groups, and
distributed data management. Microsoft said that the APIs described by the
SDK will allow developers to focus on applications and not low-level
plumbing required to support most P2P scenarios.

The IPv6 enhancements include support for Network Address Translation (NAT)
traversal and an IPv6 firewall.

The SDK and the associated Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Networking Update
capitalize on the capabilities of IPv6 to provide support for automatic
tunneling, which allows IPv6 communication over existing IPv4 networks. It
also allows NAT devices -- which are typically used in a home where a
single public IPv4 address is shared among multiple computers with private
IP addresses -- to communicate with each other without forcing the users to
manually configure them.

The SDK is available for download here. The company said it expects to make the final
release of the SDK and the Peer-to-Peer Networking Update later in the
year.